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A review by zara93
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
3.0
I’m about to rant, you have been warned.
I have some issues with this one.. i’m not saying it’s bad (3 stars is still pretty good) but I didn’t feel like it blew me away! Some parts of it were 5 stars worthy but some other parts were just .. fine I guess.
Ok, so one of my main issues with this book is that I didn’t buy half of it.. bear with me while I explain. First of all, the characters were inconsistent.. they are supposed to be this gang of the worst individuals the barrel can offer, especially our boy Dirtyhands. Kaz is supposed to be deadly, ruthless and blinded by revenge. And we saw him in action and we believed it in Six of Crows. Here he was kinda... soft? Like come on, you promised me ruthless so give ruthless!!
In this book he was all talk unlike in Six of Crows. Ok I get that he’s a bit changed, just like how Inej noticed some of his actions were unusual, like preparing a net for her etc. But that’s Inej, it’s understandable that he is acting differently towards her, doesn’t explain why he’s not so “dirtyhands”. You know how in The Folk of the Air trilogy we are told that Cardan is a cruel prince and boy did he deliver! Don’t tell me a character is supposed to be something and they are not, he kept telling Inej that he’s not a good guy but the author made sure he isn’t that bad either as if she was worried we are not going to root for him if he was “that bad”. He was so set on revenge, it was his sole purpose.. but it didn’t feel like it paid off.
Which brings me to the whole ya thing, it always comes back to the ages. This feels like when a production company decides to make a movie about let’s say Joker, but they insist on making it PG. It’s not going to work. Just imagine if these characters were older, if these two books were more gruesome. It was already quite dark why not go all the way? I think it was a bit of a wasted opportunity tbh.
With that said, Kaz still is my favourite character and I wish his part was bigger.. his relationship with Inej was so interesting, both of them are very interesting characters with so many scars and so much to explore and I hoped we got more time with them. It felt like Leigh Bardugo deliberately spaced out their POVs, especially Kaz’s. I think she intended for him to keep part of his mysterious side but to me It didn’t work. I just needed more Kaz!!
Nina and Matthias’s story was basically resolved in the beginning of the book and not much was happening with them, until Matthias dies and it’s a big deal.. I was actually surprised because few chapters back I was actually thinking that it didn’t feel like there are real stakes, they are all going to survive, I actually said that and then he died! It was a HUGE deal, so why was it just brushed off!! We should’ve spent more time on this, it should’ve been way more emotional. One minute Nina was grieving(?) and the next she was back to her usual self casually chatting with the rest of them! He’s the love of her life!!! Am I the only one who feels this way?
I know there is going to be a third book down the line, and the author is setting up for it.. but I didn’t like the way she went about it. You can set for a another book but don’t let that affect this one.
My second main issue with this book is the ending of the big conflict, not the ending itself, but the way she resolved the big climax. Similarly to the first book, it was so cartoonish and so left field. In Six of Crows it was the thing with the tank.. just no. And here it was the last bit in the church with Van Eak acting like a child rather than a believable villain.
My final issue is the size of the book, to be honest I think it could’ve been shorter. The author spent too much time going into details of the plans they made but it was so obvious that it wasn’t going to work the way these characters were hoping. So it kinda grew old every time they made a new plan.
I know it looks like I tore this book to shreds lol but I did enjoyed a big chunk of it, but I just can’t ignore these issues I had with it. I think i’m in the minority because I enjoyed Six of Crows way more than Crooked Kingdom.
I have some issues with this one.. i’m not saying it’s bad (3 stars is still pretty good) but I didn’t feel like it blew me away! Some parts of it were 5 stars worthy but some other parts were just .. fine I guess.
Ok, so one of my main issues with this book is that I didn’t buy half of it.. bear with me while I explain. First of all, the characters were inconsistent.. they are supposed to be this gang of the worst individuals the barrel can offer, especially our boy Dirtyhands. Kaz is supposed to be deadly, ruthless and blinded by revenge. And we saw him in action and we believed it in Six of Crows. Here he was kinda... soft? Like come on, you promised me ruthless so give ruthless!!
In this book he was all talk unlike in Six of Crows. Ok I get that he’s a bit changed, just like how Inej noticed some of his actions were unusual, like preparing a net for her etc. But that’s Inej, it’s understandable that he is acting differently towards her, doesn’t explain why he’s not so “dirtyhands”. You know how in The Folk of the Air trilogy we are told that Cardan is a cruel prince and boy did he deliver! Don’t tell me a character is supposed to be something and they are not, he kept telling Inej that he’s not a good guy but the author made sure he isn’t that bad either as if she was worried we are not going to root for him if he was “that bad”. He was so set on revenge, it was his sole purpose.. but it didn’t feel like it paid off.
Which brings me to the whole ya thing, it always comes back to the ages. This feels like when a production company decides to make a movie about let’s say Joker, but they insist on making it PG. It’s not going to work. Just imagine if these characters were older, if these two books were more gruesome. It was already quite dark why not go all the way? I think it was a bit of a wasted opportunity tbh.
With that said, Kaz still is my favourite character and I wish his part was bigger.. his relationship with Inej was so interesting, both of them are very interesting characters with so many scars and so much to explore and I hoped we got more time with them. It felt like Leigh Bardugo deliberately spaced out their POVs, especially Kaz’s. I think she intended for him to keep part of his mysterious side but to me It didn’t work. I just needed more Kaz!!
Nina and Matthias’s story was basically resolved in the beginning of the book and not much was happening with them, until Matthias dies and it’s a big deal.. I was actually surprised because few chapters back I was actually thinking that it didn’t feel like there are real stakes, they are all going to survive, I actually said that and then he died! It was a HUGE deal, so why was it just brushed off!! We should’ve spent more time on this, it should’ve been way more emotional. One minute Nina was grieving(?) and the next she was back to her usual self casually chatting with the rest of them! He’s the love of her life!!! Am I the only one who feels this way?
I know there is going to be a third book down the line, and the author is setting up for it.. but I didn’t like the way she went about it. You can set for a another book but don’t let that affect this one.
My second main issue with this book is the ending of the big conflict, not the ending itself, but the way she resolved the big climax. Similarly to the first book, it was so cartoonish and so left field. In Six of Crows it was the thing with the tank.. just no. And here it was the last bit in the church with Van Eak acting like a child rather than a believable villain.
My final issue is the size of the book, to be honest I think it could’ve been shorter. The author spent too much time going into details of the plans they made but it was so obvious that it wasn’t going to work the way these characters were hoping. So it kinda grew old every time they made a new plan.
I know it looks like I tore this book to shreds lol but I did enjoyed a big chunk of it, but I just can’t ignore these issues I had with it. I think i’m in the minority because I enjoyed Six of Crows way more than Crooked Kingdom.